Thursday, March 24, 2016

Last week the outgoing transport minister Paschal Donohoe outlined the 2016 funding for the Dublin Galway Greenway. The funding was announced as part of a 23.2M funding package by the National Transport Authority for the Greater Dublin Area for 2016.

The overall funding includes provision for DublinBikes expansion, and construction or further planning on walking/cycle routes

In total, 1.65 million Euro will be made available for Dublin City Council, Fingal County Council and Kildare County Council. This allocation is specifically for the upgrade of the Royal Canal which will form the backbone of the Dublin Galway greenway on the eastern end of the national cycle route.

Dublin City Council will receive 900,000 for the Royal Canal greenway which is broken down as follows:

Fingal County Council will receive 350,000 for the Royal Canal preliminary design and to the start the planning process for the route from 12th lock at Castleknock to the Fingal/Kildare county border. Sources in the council have told this blog that FingalCoCo hope to put out a tender after Easter for the design of plan for the cycleway, starting at the 12 Lock and finishing at the Kildare border. The exact finishing point for this survey is still uncertain and dependent on the National Transport Authority confirming how much funding Fingal has to undertake the design tender.

Kildare County Council will received 365,000 for commencement of construction of Royal Canal route between Maynooth and the Kildare/Fingal border. Kildare county council recently held a public consultation on the route.

While it is great to see the funding being made available, it is disappointing that there is no funding allocated to Meath County Council for the section of the Royal Canal greenway that traverses through Co. Meath. It is unclear if Meath County Council requested funding.

Minister Donohoe said:”As economic activity continues to grow it is important that we encourage greater use of sustainable public transport options”

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Now that planning permission is granted, it is hoped that Longford Forest can be linked to the Royal Canal Greenway. According to planning documents seen by this blog, a new off road cycle link between Newcastle Woods and the Royal Canal Greenway is being considered as part of the development of the Center Parcs holiday park.

The decision to grant planning permission, subject to 22 conditions was announced this week. The planning grant included a clause that Center Parcs will have to provide almost €1 million (€951,420) to Longford County Council as a contribution to the upgrading of public infrastructure in the area of the development. Furthermore, details of the planning conditions specifically calls for a off road cycle link to the Royal Canal.

This decision to grant permission is welcomed by campaigners for the Royal Canal Greenway and is a vote of confidence in the work carried out by Longford Council so far. Longford Council have developed the Royal Canal Greenway as far as Abbeyshrule and are planning to bring the canal cycleway to the junction of the Royal Canal and the N55 by Summer 2016. Campaigners are calling for funding to be provided to complete the cycleway all the way to Longford Town and thereby joining with the Longford to Clondra greenway and possible connections to the Mayo Greenway and the Greenways planned in Leitrim.

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

We would like to congratulate the remaining candidates in the Longford Westmeath constituency and thank all other candidates who declared their support for the completion of the Longford Greenway during the election campaign.

Many of remaining candidates responded positively to our pre-election survey of candidates by email which asked a simple question “Do you support current policy as declared by the Department of Transport Tourism and Sport to complete the Royal Canal Greenway in Longford?”

We are delighted the completion of the greenway has cross-party support. For example, Robert Troy (FF), told us that he "will work to honor this commitment. The greenway is a fantastic amenity, and connecting them is an excellent idea that will encourage tourism."

DublinGalwayGreenway.com wishes all of the remaining candidates the very best of luck we look forward to their continued support going forward.